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from the digital-restrictions-managed? dept.
The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), the nonprofit body that maintains the Web's core standards, made a terrible mistake in 2013: they decided to add DRM—the digital locks that train your computer to say "I can't let you do that, Dave"; rather than "Yes, boss"—to the Web's standards.
So the EFF came back with a new proposal: the W3C could have its cake and eat it too. It could adopt a rule that requires members who help make DRM standards to promise not to sue people who report bugs in tools that conform to those standards, nor could they sue people just for making a standards-based tool that connected to theirs. They could make DRM, but only if they made sure that they took steps to stop that DRM from being used to attack the open Web.
The EFF asked the W3C to make this into their policy. The only W3C group presently engaged in DRM standardization is due to have its charter renewed in early 2016. The W3C called a poll over that charter during the Christmas month, ending on December 30th.
Despite the tight timeline and the number of members who were unavailable over the holidays, a global, diverse coalition of commercial firms, nonprofits and educational institutions came together to endorse this proposal. More than three quarters of those who weighed in on the proposal supported it.
This isn't the first collision between proprietary rights and the W3C. In 1999, the W3C had to decide what to do about software patents. These patents were and are hugely controversial, and the W3C was looking for a way to be neutral on the question of whether patents were good or bad, while still protecting the Web's openness to anyone who wanted to develop for it.
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They came up with a brilliant strategy: a patent nonaggression policy—a policy the EFF modeled the DRM proposal on. Under this policy, participation in a W3C group meant that you had to promise your company wouldn't use its patents to sue over anything that group produced. This policy let the W3C take a position on the open Web (the Web is more open when your risk of getting sued for making it better is reduced) without taking a policy on whether patents are good.
The DRM covenant does the same thing. Without taking a position on DRM, it takes the inarguable position that the Web gets more open when the number of people who can sue you for reporting bugs in it or connecting new things to it goes down.
The World Wide Web Consortium is at a crossroads. Much of the "Web" is disappearing into apps and into the big companies' walled gardens. If it is to be relevant in the decades to come, it must do everything it can to keep the Web open as an alternative to those walled gardens. If the W3C executive won't take the lead on keeping the Web open, they must, at a minimum, not impede those who haven't given up the fight.
(Score: 1, Troll) by frojack on Thursday January 14 2016, @07:22AM
Speaking of copyrights, you can tell where ever Hairyfeet has been on the web by just searching that phrase "forever minus a single day".
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by Hairyfeet on Thursday January 14 2016, @01:39PM
News Flash, that was a quote by Jack Valenti [wikipedia.org] who went before congress and argued that was the "true intent" of copyrights. I'm far from the only one who has used that quote as its right up there with his "I say to you that the VCR is to the American film producer and the American public as the Boston strangler is to the woman home alone." on the "WTF?" scale.
BTW if you actually bothered to do what you said and Google it [google.com] then you would know this as the very first link [rufuspollock.org] is to a paper citing Valenti and the line.
Perhaps this will encourage you to actually try looking up a quote instead of just babbling? Learning about the history of a subject before you speak...its a good thing.
ACs are never seen so don't bother. Always ready to show SJWs for the racists they are.
(Score: 2) by frojack on Thursday January 14 2016, @08:35PM
You've popularized the phrase singlehandedly far more than Valenti ever did. The majority of hits lead to you.
He's been dead for 9 years, don't you think its time to stop kicking his corpse? Especially since nobody took him seriously, other than you.
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
(Score: 2) by Hairyfeet on Thursday January 14 2016, @09:55PM
Again I have to educate the ignorant...News Flash dumbass, the vast majority of our nastiest copyright laws, including the DMCA [wikipedia.org]? Were implemented as a direct result of his lobbying for the MPAA.
So again try actually learning about the subject instead of just bitching like a butthurt 14 year old Halo player. To use a quote, from Abe Lincoln this time just so you won't automatically assume its more of my endless wisdom, " Better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak out and remove all doubt."
ACs are never seen so don't bother. Always ready to show SJWs for the racists they are.